“the Enabling Act Was the Most Important Factor in Hitler’s Consolidation of Power.” Discuss

I agree that the enabling act was the most important factor in Hitler’s consolidation of power because the enabling act allowed Hitler to pass decrees without the president’s involvement it also made Hitler a legal dictator he has absolute power. Hitler was still not secure as he could not remove his opponents like the civil service who could undermine the Weimar republic also Hindenburg could still sack Hitler at anytime. For the next 4 years if Hitler wanted a new law he could just pass it and because of enabling act he didn’t need to consult the Reichstag. He intimidated the Reichstag into passing the enabling act by using the S.A. the Nazis won their largest even share of the votes and with support of the smaller nationalist parties Hitler had the majority of seats in the Reichstag one of the Nazis main aims.

However the Reichstag fire plus emergency decrees was also another important factor in Hitler’s rise to power because they were able to take advantage of the situation when the Reichstag build burned down as he was able to then blame the communists for this a declared that it was the start of a communist uprising and that he needed to act and got Hindenburg to grant him the emergency decrees to help deal with this uprising. This now meant the Nazis were legally allowed to arrest suspects and hold them without trial so basically anyone that opposed them or they didn’t like they could arrest on legal terms without trial. Also Hitler was able to take over regional governments.

The night of the long knives was a key factor to Hitler’s rise to power because the S.A were now becoming an embarrassment to Hitler by attacking innocent people and also wanting to merge the army with the S.A with the S.A in charge of it. Hitler had to choose between the S.A and the army. Hitler needed the support of the army to stay in power and achieve his foreign policy aims and if he destroyed the S.A he would be sure of the support of the army. The S.S Hitler’s personal...